Lafayette Ltd. By Royal Appointment. - A NelsonFoto Forums Post

[GrahamS]

I posted this on NelsonFoto Forums on September 19th 2007, in the "Classics" forum.

Near the town of Downham Market in Norfolk, UK, there is a venue called "Collector's World." It is actually a group of old farm buildings converted to house some rather eccentric collections and memorabilia. One old barn houses the "World of Dickens" and is a maze of dark and dingy alleyways and shopfronts re-creating places from Charles Dickens' novels. Another houses what is called the "Armstrong" collection; some vintage Armstrong Siddeley cars, and some historic Armstrong Siddeley aero engines. There is a collection of Barbara Cartland memorabilia, and even a collection of dolls.

One of the dark and dusty rooms contains old photographic equipment and cameras. It is labelled as the "Lafayette" studio, and includes, according to the literature, the equipment used by the three photographers, Sanuel McCormac, Robert Booth and Edward Broughton, who, trading under the name "Lafayette Limited, Photographers" were granted the Royal Warrant as photographers to her Majesty, Queen Victoria, in 1887. The buisness was owned by James Lafayette of Dublin at the time, and as his name does not appear on the Warrant, I can only surmise that Messrs McCormac, Booth and Broughton were either partners or staff of the London branch, as the business was headquatered in Dublin. Lafayette's was one of the most successful and respected commercial photographic studios of all time, and even had branches in the USA. You can read more of the history of the company here: https://www.lafayette.ie/html/history.htm

And in case you don't know who Queen Victoria was, see here:
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page118.asp

There is also a lot of obviously more modern, non-historic "junk" among the collection, which, in my view, de-values the entire exhibit.

REPLIES:

Lesged
Shooting blanks

Graham,

That's another excellent reportage of a facet of English life, which I greatly appreciate. I'm ashamed to say the only parts of your wonderful country that I have seen are its ports and airports. Unfortunately, I was always in transit.

Nevertheless, a photo I shot of an English photographer in Germany somehow fits in with your Kodak memorabilia. It was a gag shot taken when Steve Taffler spontaneously picked up a Kodak advertising box from the street. Looks light, but wasn't

Steve and I accompanied his cousin, Harold Lewis-- a Boston based photographer and my old biking buddy-- who I've mentioned before. Harold was doing location shots for a series of ads American Tourister was preparing for a new line of lugggage. Steve and I came along for the ride through 4-5 gorgeous countries. I can't remember ever laughing so much as we did on that trip, never before never since. We had a ball!

(See Les' image at the end of the thread I can's figure out how to make it appear here!)


Nick Merritt Nick Merritt is offline

Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Hartford, Connecticut USA
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Film vending machines?? Didn't know such things existed. Sounds and looks like a fascinating place.
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Old 09-20-2007
Dennis Gallus Dennis Gallus is offline

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Location: Northern Virginia
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Graham,

That is a curious collection, especially as shown in the first photo. One wonders why the jumble of new and old things. The second photo is more like a display that one would expect to see in a museum

The Kodak memorabilia are the most fascinating things. Such things are getting more scarce here too. Last year when I saw a traditional Kodak sign in front of a small-town camera store, I stopped to photograph it because I realized it would probably not be there much longer.

Thanks for a well-photographed post,
Dennis
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Old 09-21-2007
Dean Williams Dean Williams is offline
The cheese whisperer...

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That first shot.. Now that's what I call a candy store.
Interesting shots, Graham. I really like the old signs/dispensers.
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Old 09-21-2007
Graham Serretta Graham Serretta is offline

Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Hertfordshire, U.K.
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Les - Sounds like you had a memorable trip - and some treasured memories from it. Thanks for the commentary.

Dennis - In my opinion the original Lafayette collection of equipment has been "corrupted" by the inclusion of the "new" in ignorance, or through lack of understanding. The whole place seemed to be pretty run down and from my professional point of view, it was a prime fire risk. As for Lafayette, well, a Royal Warrant is all it takes to ensure financial success even if one's work is mediocre - Snowdon, Beaton, Ross, Litchfield......

Thank you all for the replies.
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Graham S

[jamesmck]

Graham, thanks for re-posting this and the others. I guess you must have saved them before the site went down. An excellent example of what will be lost.